Casing the Startup Joint

1
Casing the Startup Joint

• Real Life Examples of Startup Opportunities,
• Issues Decision Making

Albert Wenger Union Square Ventures Charlie
ODonnell Path 101
2
Your Hosts

• Albert Wenger
• Currently
• Partner, Union Square Ventures
• Clickable, Covestor, 10gen
• Past
• Angel Investor
• Etsy, Tumblr
• President, del.icio.us
• (Co-) Founder
• LC39, W3Health, Bossard

• Charlie ODonnell
• Currently
• Founder CEO, Path 101
• Founder, nextNY
• Past
• Director of Consumer Products, Oddcast
• Analyst, Union Square Ventures
• Analyst, GM Pension Private Equity

3
Goals

• Interactive
• Educational
• Participative
• Inspiring
• Fun

4
Startups The Seven Step Program

• Having the idea
• Vetting the idea
• Getting started
• Financing
• Building the team
• Growing the business
• Exiting

5
Having the Idea

• What makes a good idea?
• Where do good ideas come from?
• Industry insider or outside agitator?
• How much is an idea worth?
• Stealth versus Anti-stealth?
• Business model?

6
Vetting the idea

• Feedback
• Feasability
• Market landscape
• Prototyping
• Reduction

7
Getting Started

• Quitting your job?
• Legal documents
• Business plan?
• Branding
• Business tools
• Geography

8
Financing

• Is yours a VC deal?
• When will it generate cash?
• How much money does your company need?
• How much money do YOU need?
• Why do you need money?
• Alternatives to VC?

9
Building the Team

• Your reputation
• Self assessment
• Co-founders? Outsourcing?
• Where to find good people?
• Skills?
• Cultural fit?
• How many people do you need?

10
Raising VC

• Finding a VC
• Getting a meeting
• Understanding VC decision making
• Risk
• Partnerships
• Pitching
• Due Diligence
• Term Sheet
• Negotiations

11
Growing the Business

• Acquiring Customers
• Revenues?
• Recruiting?
• Scaling people?
• Scaling technology?

12
Exiting

• When to sell?
• Why sell?
• Who to sell to?

13
Contacts

• Albert Wenger
• albert at unionsquareventures dot com
• continuations.wenger.us
• twitter albertwenger

• Charlie ODonnell
• charlie at path101 dot com
• thisisgoingtobebig.com
• twitter ceonyc